a bunny's heart | karma akabane

043: sweetheart protection program

Mina's mom jokingly huffed as if she was offended before rushing towards her daughter, catching Mina in a tight hug. The older hayashi laughed, and Mina let out a small giggle too at some point. "Honey, I was worried for you! Rio said you randomly ditched on her, I thought you got lost."

Ms. Hayashi let go off her daughter breathy before turning her head slightly, looking straight at karma. He just raised an eyebrow- still, a small smile crept up that woman's face. "But, as I see, you've been guided home just fine."

The girl with the pretty smile (quoting the red head, obviously.) widened her eyes before quickly moving next to him.

"Oh, yeah- mom, I totally forgot! This is karma, karma Akabane. Karma, this is my mom, hori."

Karma didn't like speaking to parents. He had to, once, when he hang out with nagisa and his mother forced him to introduce himself.
He didn't know why, maybe he was bitter. Maybe he didn't want to talk to other people's parents when his own didn't let him speak to them.
It was for mina, though, so he picked up the nice facade. He knew perfectly how to deal with parents from all of those parties, maybe they were good for something after all.

"Nice to meet you, ma'am. I'm-" he smiled fakely, making hori laugh a little too loudly for the time.

Karma stopped, raised an eyebrow again- questioning if he had maybe mispronounced something.

"Mom!" Mina nudged her mother, only for her to grin.

"Sorry!" Hori smiled before moving her gaze back to karma. "You can drop the fancy act, karma. Just call me hori, there's no protective dad here who'll beat you up."

The red haired boy didn't know what to think, he was startled. Though, mina's mother seemed like she was one of those relaxed adults, which made karma possible to talk like an actual human again.

"So, karma, huh? The boy who slept in the same room as my daughter, ill. wait. Mina, is this the one you've been sul-" hori crossed her arms, suspiciously before mina shushed her out by hitting her on the head.

"Mom!"

"Okay, alright!" The woman brought her hands up defensively before questioning karma.

"It's pretty late, you guys must be tired. Do you want some soda, karma?"

"Oh, no, it's alright," karma shrugged, having been zooming out of the conversation previously.
He did know mina was close to her mom, he did. She talked about her occasionally, when they all hung out with Rio and some older woman called youko. But seeing it in person was fascinating.

Karma had never been so close to any family member.

"No, no! I insist. Come on kiddo, at least get a glass of water." Hori already walked on towards the door, confidently.

He didn't mind coming up, he just wanted to know what mina wanted to say. It sounded important, did it not?
Mina sighed softly, mouthing him a quick 'sorry' before following her mother.

____

Hori's keys made a 'click' sound as they opened the door to their apartment. She threw them on the blink-182 shelve Sugino had been so obsessed with previously before taking off her black coat.

After she took of her shoes, mina moved out of the way for karma to get into the cool apartment.

It was warm outside, the air felt wet. Inside the Hayashi Apartment though, the cheap Ecuadorian Air conditioner hori had bought a while ago from a shady website worked magically better than any of the expensive ones all around tokyo.
It was dark outside, but the 'we-never-use-the-big-light' rule made the whole apartment shine in a dimed colourful light.